Preti Taneja, who chairs the judging panel and won the 2018 prize, said: “Each book on the Desmond Elliot Prize 2020 longlist has earned its place for its love of language, its crafting of a sentence: for its approach to its subject matter and its creation of complex characters and an immersive world.

“That world might be full of terrors, the potential of love or exist in the past, recognisable present or longed-for future – the list has all of these.

“It is excellent to see that it reflects the range and depth of current concerns – that this group of debut writers are as clear-eyed, and as passionate and political as our times demand.

“There are 10 names here that many readers will not have encountered yet, and that is what makes the Desmond Elliot Prize 2020 unique.

“As a judging panel we now have an exciting challenge to choose a shortlist of three and a winner, and we are very proud to begin with this longlist.”